THE RISE OF THE NEW ARAB NATION 



371 



war opened their path to success. It also 

 cost the lives of many Arab leaders in 

 Syria, who were apprehended by the 

 Turks and shot. 



HIDE-AND-SEEK GOVERNMENT IN ARABIA 



The Sultan's long control over Arabia 

 was never more than nominal, especially 

 in the interior. Barring parts of Hejaz, 

 Turkish authority was never actually and 

 fully recognized and respected by Arabs 

 anywhere. In many parts of Arabia 

 official Turkish feet never trod; outside 

 nations, by international courtesy, re- 

 garded these regions as Turkish territory 

 merely because the map so showed them ; 

 but the local Arabs ruled themselves— 

 and laughed at Turkish claims. 



Even as late as 1910, when the Sultan 

 sent word to the Sheik of the Beni Lam 

 tribes in Mesopotamia (not even a part 

 of Arabia proper), inviting him to come 

 to Stamboul for a conference, the Sheik 

 replied, in substance, "If you want to see 

 me, you know where I live!" 



While residing in Bagdad, I used to 

 see Turkish light artillery go out to blow 

 up the mud towns of river Arabs, who, 

 spurning Turkish authority, had refused 

 to pay their taxes. Sometimes the Arabs 

 would drive the Turks back; often the 

 Turks would seize many of the tribes' 

 camels for back taxes. Later, perhaps, 

 the Arabs would steal the camels back 

 again. 



Thus this hide-and-seek war went on ; 

 it went on from the halcyon days of 

 Murad the Fourth, and civilization grew 

 weary of the spectacle. It held back the 

 development of trade in the Middle East ; 

 trade caravans could not travel safely, 

 either from Syria to Mesopotamia, down 

 into Arabia, or even from Bagdad to 

 the Persian frontier. Once the German 

 consul at Bagdad, going to Aleppo by 

 carriage, was robbed and stripped, es- 

 caping back to Bagdad clad only in his 

 shoes. 



Christian nations, long tired of Tur- 

 key's experiments, have now officially 

 declared themselves, and the dawn of a 

 new era in the Middle East is breaking. 

 Listen to what Clemenceau told the Sul- 

 tan's Grand Vizier when he recently 

 headed a committee of Turks who called 

 on the Council of Ten (at the Peace Con- 



ference) to plead for the status quo ante 

 helium of the Ottoman Empire : 



"The Council is anxious not to enter 

 into unnecessary controversy, and to 

 avoid inflicting needless pain on Your 

 Excellency. ... It wishes well to the 

 Turkish people, and admires their excel- 

 lent qualities. But it cannot admit that 

 among those qualities are to be counted 

 capacity to rule over alien races. The 

 experiment has been tried too long and 

 too often for there to be the least doubt 

 as to the result. . . . 



"There is no case to be found . . . 

 where the withdrawal of Turkish rule 

 has not been followed by a growth in 

 material prosperity and a rise in the level 

 of culture. Neither among the Chris- 

 tians of Europe nor among the Moslems 

 of Syria, Arabia, and Africa has the 

 Turk done other than destroy where he 

 has conquered." . . . 



ENTER BRITAIN EXIT TURK 



So the passing of the Turk and the 

 rise of the new Arab nation is full of 

 far-reaching possibilities. The Grand 

 Shereef's famous telegram spelt the end 

 of Mecca's isolation, obscurity, and fa- 

 naticism. Ministers and consuls, mis- 

 sionaries and merchants may now reside, 

 explore, and trade in this long-forbidden 

 country. Light will fall where darkness 

 lurked, and this vast geographic unit of 

 the old Ottoman Empire will no longer 

 be merely a blank space on the world's 

 map. 



Arab tribal wars will end. Bedouin 

 clans, like the Jebbel Shamars and the 

 Anaeza, nomad outlaws since the wild 

 days of Ghengiz Khan and the invading 

 Timur, will now have to be good. Brit- 

 ish supervision will protect the trading 

 caravans, and pious pilgrims from Tur- 

 kestan, Persia, India. Egypt, and Syria 

 may go to Mecca in peace and safety. 



Whether the new religious head . of 

 Islam actually resides in Mecca or in 

 Cairo will not affect the predominance 

 of Mecca and Medina, so famous in Mo- 

 hammedan history. For the British will 

 be there; and the Moslem faith has al- 

 ways been as much of a political as a re- 

 ligious force in the Middle East. And 

 for decades Britain's influence among the 

 Arab sheiks about Aden, Maskat ( Mus- 



